Either you are totally clueless about what constitutes “peace” between India/Pakistan, or just wanted to throw in another stupid jab towards Pakistan.

We all know that this topic will blow up and result in another locked thread. I humbly request everyone to stick with cricket matters only, as much as possible.

I meant a temporary "peace" deal....as has been made with the Talibans(I hope the deal with the Taliban is just temporary). Is it really that difficult for you to imagine that India would back off while Pakistan deals with the Talibans..........they can always resume the pissing competition later.

Why the PCB's move to press charges against the ICC for the loss of the World Cup is misguided

May 10, 2009

The emotion behind the PCB's decision to send a legal notice to the ICC over the 2011 World Cup decision is understandable. The board, the whole country, feels isolated, victimised and targeted. Two major tournaments have been taken away from them, countries have not toured them in better times and are now unlikely to tour for some time. Those the board once thought were friends within the Asian bloc have, in their minds, not helped them. Instead, they have pushed them further to the margins.

The process to exclude Pakistan, it also emerges, was not without considerable flaw. Any such decision is usually to be taken by the commercial arm of the ICC, the IDI board. That was not the case here. The subject was not on the agenda at the April meeting, and the PCB was seemingly caught unaware. Not as unaware and unprepared as it should have been, however: the ICC had, in February, asked the 2011 World Cup co-hosts to think of alternative venues should the situation worsen. After the Lahore attack, when everything changed, the PCB should not just have been thinking about such advice, it should've been acting on it.

The Lahore attack, and its implications, were on the agenda of the meet. One implication was clearly the World Cup and Pakistan's place in it: would it not have made sense to have a plan at the ready to present? A proposal for Abu Dhabi and Dubai to "host" Pakistan's matches was said by PCB officials to be on the cards - after the decision was taken. Apparently such a proposal wasn't tabled at all, perhaps because board officials balked at the possible expense involved in any such move.

Still, ostensibly, Pakistan feels humiliated, short-changed. A bullish, emotional response is inevitable, especially if there is a valid sense that legally a decision can be challenged. Some face also needs to be saved domestically. The problem, however, is just that: that the response is an emotional one, not one driven by cold-hearted logic.

Had it been, perhaps the board might have realised that even if the decision is referred to the rightful organ, which somehow finds that Pakistan should remain a host, no country can be forced to play here. Amazingly, the board still doesn't seem to have grasped the gravity of what happened in Lahore and how things have since changed. An international cricket team was targeted by terrorists, who eventually got away. No amount of legalese will convince cricketers to visit after that. They were unwilling before the attacks, as the Champions Trophy decision attests. How can their resolve to not tour Pakistan not have been strengthened now that the government and the board have failed to provide the kind of security that was needed - even if nobody really knows what kind of security measures will suffice against such barbarism? That is the bottomline.

And if the Middle East as a surrogate host is an option, then the PCB has not yet made it official. Thus, a legal battle appears futile. Potentially, for a cash-strapped board, it will hurt, for lawyers come as cheap as Hollywood stars.

There is also an unsavoury sense - emanating from the core of those behind this move - that Pakistan will push for the entire subcontinent to also lose out. If Pakistan is not reinstated for 2011, the board seems to be saying, then the subcontinent should host the 2015 World Cup and not this one. The PCB's statement, trying to bring in the troubles in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, confirms it.

It comes across as a tasteless, anticipatory schadenfraude, taking pleasure from the potential misfortunes of others in the hope of lessening your own gloom. Whatever the situation in these countries, no team has yet been attacked there and that makes all the difference. And how easy will it be to convince those very countries whose hosting rights you are trying to derail for 2011, to cooperate with you for 2015? Do these lines even have to be written to spell this out?

In the longer and broader term, logic says such a stance is disastrous, for confrontation will alienate Pakistan further. As it is, the present PCB administration is not about to write the sequel to How to Win Friends and Influence People. Their reputation within and with the ICC - it is reliably learnt - is as low as it has ever been.

Better it might be for the board to just move on; better than a legal notice might be a demand for a review, having tried to garner some support or have some firm alternative in place; better it might be to try and repair a faltering relationship with the ICC and members; better it might be for the PCB to remember the mantra of world politics, that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests; finally, better it might be to use - and not squander - some of the genuine sympathy out there for Pakistan's plight more constructively.

He always writes really good pieces. I have to say, I do feel pretty sorry for Pakistan the way the WC being taken away has been handled, even though it was the right decision. I found it a bit distasteful the way the second it had been finalised the BCCI was all over taking over the fixtures.

It would also seem to make sense to review the whole WC at once a bit nearer the time. The situation in Sri Lanka is pretty bad right now, Bangladesh also, and India isn't all that great either.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board's decision to abstain from voting has left it on weak legal ground on the case of the ICC's decision to move the World Cup matches outside Pakistan, according to legal advice received by the ICC. Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, chose to stay away from voting during the ICC board meeting that decided on the issue in Dubai on April 17. "The final vote during that meeting has been recorded as having been a unanimous one," ICC sources told Cricinfo. "This should work strongly in the ICC's favour. If the PCB had any objection at that point of time, they should have voted against the move instead of abstaining. Legally, as it is, they have a weak case."

Imran Khan 'll never take any position in cricket board
cuz he'S involved in politics, where a straight forward man like him doesn't get anything( means he'll never win elections)
i would recommend him to be the boss of the PCB

So, now, after having argued that the other subcontinental countries are not capable of holding a world cup - PCB expects those same Asian boards to go to bat for it and champion it's case. Staggering sense of entitlement.

(I for one, found the "pretext of elections" bit coming from the PCB highly disgusting - Indian elections are the largest regular mobilization of people bar none. It was very mature of the Indian government to ask BCCI to go elsewhere for the IPL. And one of the main threats to India are Pakistan based terror/crime outfits like the LeT and the Dawood mafia.)

And here goes the PCB winning friends once again. "ICC must stop IPL", but the BCCI must go to ICC and ask it to give PCB WC2011 back

( Mr Miandad's brother-in-law has run some of the biggest match fixing operations in the past. It's a frickin wonder that PCB chooses to have such a murky individual be one of its officers, in the first place - the caesar's wife argument here)

Cricket Australia has confirmed 2009-10 will be a six-Test home summer for Ricky Ponting's men with Hobart set to host a Test in January for the first time. The international season kicks off with the first Test against West Indies at the Gabba on November 26 and the Test portion wraps up in with the third Test against Pakistan at Bellerive Oval beginning on January 14.

Following three-Test series against each side, Australia will host separate ODI tours for each country after the traditional tri-series was scrapped before the start of last summer. Each side will face Australia in five one-day internationals with Pakistan also playing one Twenty20 and West Indies two.

It will be a big summer for Bellerive Oval, which returns to Test duty having hosted only two five-day encounters over the past seven seasons, and is holding its first non-November Test in 20 years. The venue is also expected to have floodlights in place by the start of the summer and has been rewarded with its first Twenty20 international, against West Indies on February 21.

"The last time Australia played Pakistan in Hobart it was a thrilling encounter that saw a magnificent partnership between Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist steer Australia to victory on the final day," James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's CEO, said. "It was a fine example of Test cricket.

"Hobart will also host their first KFC Twenty20 International against the West Indies in February and we expect to see a packed house at Bellerive. Twenty20 cricket continues to thrive and Tasmanian fans will be looking forward to their first taste of the format at international level."

As well as playing in Hobart, Pakistan will line up for the traditional Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and the New Year Test in Sydney, while West Indies play in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The schedule means the former Queensland batsman and now West Indies player Brendan Nash is likely to enjoy a Test in front of what used to be his home crowd at the Gabba.

How would the Pakistan fans feel about having the "home" games over here (England) for the 2010 season?

There would be huge support (London, Birmingham, Manchester and the Leeds/Bradford areas have big Pakistani communities) and the ball swings so not completely different to Pakistan (barring the obvious difference- the weather!).

We could always prepare the wickets to be similar to those in Pakistan.

I'm not sure of the country you play after Australia, but a 4-Match test series and 7 ODI's between Pakistan and India in England would be quite the show. You'd have huge support for both teams as well as a lot of neutrals wanting to experience the clash.

* Sorry if this has been mentioned before, I haven't read the whole thread.